Project 2024: Mental Health is Health
There is no health without mental health. How’s that for “Happy New Year”?! For anyone that knows me, I am an optimist. However, we cannot be oblivious to the challenges that face us in the new year. The truth is that there is no good health without good mental health. This is what I have come to realize working as a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) for almost 20 years. As a pediatric specialist working in the hospital, it became obvious pretty quickly that managing health issues in children complicated the mental health of families. In private practice, being successful in improving a person’s eating patterns was entangled with their emotional and stress levels. When I started seeing people with full on eating disorders, this was amplified. This really was the inspiration for me to go back to school and get my graduate degree in clinical mental health counseling. We continue to learn more and more about how the mind guides the body in all body systems. Poor mental health leads to poor physical health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity.” Instead of setting another new year’s resolution that aims to shrink your body, consider a new approach and focus on your mental and spiritual health.
According to Mental Health America (MHA), at least 20% of Americans are experiencing mental illness and over half of them are not receiving treatment. Over 1 in 10 of our youth are experiencing depression so severe that it has impaired their ability to function. One major obstacle that must be addressed is access to mental health care. Some of the other findings in the MHA report are very concerning:
Hope, Connection, Purpose and Meaning
When creating community programs that promote mental health, outcomes are measured by hope, connection, purpose and meaning. These are the common denominators that are cross cultural and can be used for goal setting as a community, family and for the individual.
Hope
What gives you hope? As a new mental health professional counseling individuals now, I have seen firsthand that this answer varies greatly from person to person based on a person’s value system. Some people find it useful to first focus on rooting out things in life that decrease their feelings of hope. That might be a living situation or even social media influences that drains a general feeling of hope. Research does show that a spiritual connection and a belief that is bigger than them helps in creating hope.
Connection
Humans are meant for connection. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert. We need human connection, and those connections must have safety. We meet people every day that deal with dysfunction in their relationships, and those are often the source of mental health issues. It is important to seek help when those issues in relationships are causing your mental health to decline. In counseling, you can create a therapeutic alliance with your therapist that can help stabilize your mental health simply by feeling heard. Often that is severely lacking in a person’s life, and just that is a start. From there, a therapist helps in pulling out things that you say in a way that helps with clarity on how to deal with problems in a productive way.
Purpose
We all need to feel like we are living life in a way that is moving towards our purpose in life. Have you ever written a life purpose or personal mission statement? I like this one by Julie Connor, Ed.D., or if you are of faith, you might choose a formula that is grounded in your spiritual belief system. Either way, consider setting your mindset in the new year on purpose. Every day is a new day to start anew.
Meaning
Finding meaning in the struggles of life is critical to building resilience. There is no person on this earth that does not deal with difficulties, hardships, tragedy and grief. Have you ever wondered what is different from people that go through severe tragedy in life yet rise to greatness? It is found in meaning. It is important to work through those emotions and see that everything in life can have the potential to create a positive and impactful meaning for the future.
Remember that mental health is health. If you are someone struggling with mental health, you are not alone. Remove the stigma because everyone deals with it at times in our lives. Get help from a mental health professional, clergy or community services to help your mindset improve in 2024. Mental Health America provides ways to get involved in mental health advocacy (including access, better mental health coverage) as well as mental health screenings and ways to get support.
At Lemond Nutrition, we help people with holistic wellness. Our Freedom Wellness Programs are empowered interventions that look at all areas of a person’s health. Our dietitian wellness experts are here to help, and you can often see them with no out-of-pocket cost to you. Give us a call at 888-422-8070 and have our intake team do a pre-verification of benefits for you.
